Microsoft Announces Wider Rollout of Lumia Denim Update

Last year, Microsoft had unveiled the Lumia Denim update along with all the features it would encompass. Four months on, it has nowannounced that it is rolling the update for all Windows Phone 8.1 devices.

The Lumia Denim update includes an improved Cortana, which includes natural-language scenarios, snooze times for reminders, and the ability to chat with her in your car via car-kit integration. You can wake up the digital assistant just by saying “Hey Cortana.” Cortana is now available in the US, China and the UK in ‘beta’ and in ‘alpha’ in Australia, Canada India, France, Italy, Germany and Spain.

Lumia Denim has already shipped on recently released Lumia devices, including the Lumia 535, Microsoft’s non-Nokia smartphone. This update is for owners of Lumia devices that have been on the market for more than a few months. Previously, the software giant started rolling out the update in China for a number of handsets, but it seems the company is expanding it to other countries as well. Microsoft updated the software update page, listing Lumia Denim as the software for several unlocked devices, as well as a few carriers as well. For instance, and quite surprising, Verizon in the US has started rolling out the Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Denim for the Lumia 822 and Lumia 928.

Prior to the worldwide rollout of Lumia Denim, the update was confined to only specific Lumia models across select countries of the world.

With the latest announcement, Microsoft also seems to be on track to fully deliver Lumia Denim to all Lumia smartphone users throughout the world by the end of Q1 2015.

Here is a list of the highlights:

Cortana: The virtual personal assistant’s improvements include natural-language scenarios, snooze times for reminders, and the ability to chat with her in your car via car-kit integration. Originally available in the U.S., Cortana is now also available in China and the U.K. with a beta tag as well as in Australia, Canada, India, France, Italy, Germany and Spain with an alpha tag.

“Hey Cortana” Voice Activation: Simply say “Hey Cortana” while the Lumia phone is in an idle state and Cortana will be activated. No need to press the microphone button. This feature is available for Lumia 930, Lumia Icon, and Lumia 1520.

Live Folders: On your Start screen, organize your most-needed apps into folders (such as “News” and “Games”) so you can access them with one tap.

If you are a Lumia device user, then check out for the latest phone update related notifications which should appear automatically for your handsets.

You can also check out for the latest software updates manually by navigating to the Settingssection within your smartphones. So update your devices and share your experience with us in comments below.